Ryder Cup studs and duds from Day 1

The United States team quickly saw its 3-1 lead in the Ryder Cup turn into a 5-3 deficit after a historic afternoon sweep by Europe. Here are the studs and duds from the first day of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Studs

Europe foursomes

After going down 3-1 after the morning session, Europe issued a historic sweep in the afternoon - it was the first time the team has ever swept foursomes and the first time its swept any session since 1989. There were 60 holes played in the afternoon and Europe led for 54 of them, winning the four matches by the dominant scores 3&2, 4&2, 5&4 and 5&4.

Tommy Fleetwood/Francesco Molinari

The pairing trailed Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed by two holes while walking to the 11th tee in the morning. They went on to win 12 of the next 19 holes, taking the first match 3&1 and then destroying Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth 5&4 in foursomes. Fleetwood bombed some putts, Molinari looked as cool in Paris as he did this summer in Carnoustie and captain Thomas Bjorn seems to have an easy decision in front of him for Saturday.

U.S. fourball

Team USA took a 3-1 lead in the morning, winning two matches on the 18th hole and the other 4&2. Woods and Reed were the only losers for the U.S..

Jordan Spieth

Spieth's score was used on the first seven holes of his four-ball match with Justin Thomas and he was single-handedly beating Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton, leading to a 1-up win. Things weren't as rosy in the afternoon with he and Thomas suffering a 5&4 defeat.

The morning match between Tony Finau/Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm/Justin Rose swung when Finau's badly hit tee shot on the par-3 16th hit a wooden plank bordering the green, bounced high in the air and settled four feet from the pin. The birdie tied the match and set up Finau/Koepka to win on No. 18. Had the shot held up a few inches, Friday might have been even tougher for the USA.

Le Golf National

The first Ryder Cup in France looks to be a hit. The course is a great setup for a team event, providing interesting shotmaking, aesthetically pleasing holes and danger at every turn. And the 50,000 fans (including 7,000 in grandstands on the opening tee) made for a classic Ryder Cup atmosphere that should only get better as the weekend progresses.

Ian Poulter

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Expect anything different?

Duds

U.S. foursomes

We covered this by putting European foursomes in the "studs" category, but that didn't do enough justice to the beating Team USA took. The U.S. won one hole on the front nine (and just 10 overall).

Phil Mickelson/Bryson DeChambeau

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

In the foursome session, Phil and Bryson were down seven holes at the turn. They won a few holes on the bak for some window dressing to make it a still-pathetic 5&4 loss.

Jim Furyk

Sitting Tiger, Brooks Koepka and Captain America Patrick Reed in the afternoon was instantly questioned but didn't necessarily feel disastrous. The Mickelson/DeChambeau pairing, on the other hand, was widely regarded as a disaster in the making (both struggled mightily in the Tour Championship) and giving Phil his start in alternate shot, when he's forced to hit nine tee shots that count, was immediately derided, correctly. The rest of the criticism is just your typical Friday early-afternoon quarterbacking.

Knee-jerk reactions

Photo by Eric FEFERBERG / AFP

After the morning session, there was much rejoicing about the dominant United States team and how the 3-1 lead provided a 76% chance of retaining the cup. That optimism lasted about 90 minutes. Following the foursomes, some new numbers popped up: After winning the first session in Europe, the U.S. team has never won the Cup outright, going 0-3-1. And since the Ryder Cup went to three days in 1963, only four teams have come back from two points down after the first day to win the event.